Awaken Online: Flame (Tarot #2) (Awaken Online: Tarot)

There have been reviews where ppl seemed dismayed by the dungeon-crawling aspects of the Abyss and honestly, they are wrong in so many ways. What I found this volume was a story that had strong themes of whatever it takes to make your dream possible.The abyss part of this story was more about refining our characters in ways that need to be done. We got character development of our father and daughter character, who I loved deeply and am gonna be sad when they all eventually go up against Jason and the rest of the Original Sin. Julia's character was my favorite in the last volume and this one she is just as much, a daughter who was pretty much alone with a grieving father that was deep into his own pain. As someone that lost a parent, this really jumped out at me especially her desire to act out. I can only imagine what that was like for her. Finn truly realizing his faults slowly has become powerful as he never really sat there and saw what his brilliant daughter was capable of.This book was more about pushing out heroes forward and ripping the band aid of discovering Finn's secret to which I loved more than anything. It showed a contrast between his character and Jason, who continues to keep things close instead of including his teammates. We really needed this difference to see how far our heroes from the main series needs more work.The only development that I wish needed more digging was Kyyle's but that might happen the next volume, so I'm withholding that as a negative. What I do like about his character is that he took all of the information he learned in stride and just went in to help a friend in need. It makes me really wonder about his own background.The setup to the Real enemy was actually great that I didn't even get until the last couple of chapters. Maybe I'm slow, but it was a good twist. It was a wtf moment for sure, but it also was kinda sad because I kinda can see why our antagonist was led to his conclusion.My final take is that I loved this volume, it wasn't a death match -battle royale like the last one, but it really made the character shine through. Btw, those complaining about the ants don't realize that this part of the story was crucial. The whole dungeon was created to mess with them, vex them to no end and I liked it a lot. I understand why it was like that, it was designed to drag because that's what Alfred wanted.Read on, readers and remember: slow down, enjoy the people who are still here that love you. Out time here is limited.

Yet another wonderful addition to the AO series. Learning more about Finn helps deepen my understanding of his motivations and the reasons why he interacts with Jason the way he does. Truly a spectacular read.

The Tarot/Finn series is well written and enjoyable of its own accord. My main problem with this AO side mini series is that it completely ignores the rest of the AO series. There’s not a ton of content missing, but the most notable are Jason’s AO wide status messages supposedly sent to all playing the game for various accomplishments/events in the main storyline.It wouldn’t take much to integrate these messages into the current Tarot arch; simply acknowledge the AO wide status messages and have the players react to the message briefly before continuing in with the Tarot storyline. It’s subtle things like this that make Tarot feel completely removed and isolated from AO. Even Finn bringing an AI into the game is strange given all of the interactions between AO’s AI and Jason.Would give this 5 stars if it didn’t pretend to be a part of the AO world, but it appears to be completely isolated and just a sidetrack of the author’s imagination. The author also promised that this series of books had a conclusion in mind and that he wouldn’t simply keep writing books with no end ever in sight. Any conclusion seems years off at this point. This wouldn’t be an issue if the author hadn’t promised an ending which would set his books and world apart from other LitRPG books, but that is nowhere in sight.Love the writing, but the author seems to be losing focus on AO as a holistic world and is trending towards side stories and minor progress with each book making this series exactly the same as what he promised it wouldn’t be; a never ending chain of books with no end/conclusion in sight.

In a very, very good way.That's not to say my original expectations were at all negative. Far from it, I've come to very much enjoy Travis's AO books. They're incredibly engaging, and the characters all have serious flaws that they work to overcome -- it humanizes them in a way that many other LitRPG authors can hit only sometimes.None of the characters seem to act out of their nature, nor does the plot feel railroaded in any way. It seems like a very natural progression of previous events.Honestly, it kinda reminds me of Dune. Not so much setting-wise (though that does have some parallels - obvious ones), but rather in the way there are plots within plots, and trust is earned rather than simply given.tl;drIf you liked the previous one, it's a safe bet that you'll like this one too. Read it, it's really well written.

I look forward to the conclusion. I knew this was going to connect two other books and it made me want to keep reading.

I've read every Awaken Online book in this series three times now. While Jason's story is dark/funny and entertaining, Finn's story is on a whole other level. The passion and cunning displayed by the main character is engrossing. Both of the books with Finn were finished in one setting at each respective release as I could not put them down.There are several great stories in the litrpg genre but this one is special. If this is you first time hearing of Mr. Bagwell's work, I emplore you to immedialty purchase every book in the series (including side quests) and get reading. You will not be disappointed.An issue that I have with many other books that are great in their own right is filler. Preludes to chapters, introspective thoughts, irrelevant inner dialogue and useless banter are what I'm speaking of. This entire series has none of that. Every page, chapter and word is leading somewhere and there is no BS to be found.The writing is emaculate and the story is captivating. A must buy.And if you read this review Mr. Bagwell, thank you for such a wonderful story and I can't wait to read the next one.

Well just another fantastic book in this series. Doesn't get old, it actually feels like we're just getting started. Here's to many more.

I was a little mad at the idea that I would have to wait for this off spin series to finish to continue with the main story. Now I cannot wait for the next installment, it's just as good and engaging and it fills just as important as the main story.

Me encanta Awaken, pero creo que Tarot es mi favorito. Estoy deseando que vuelva a encontrarse con su mujer.

When I started this offshoot series I was a little worried that this will dilute the focus from Jason but wow I was so wrong. The story is as gripping as the original one and I hope we have all the three books out in 2020.

Dieselbe hohe Qualität wie der Rest der Awaken Online Reihe. Gibt leider nicht viele im LitRPG Genre die auf diesem Level sind, ganz im Gegenteil: oft werden interessante Ideen und Konzepte mit unerträglichen und grottenschlechten Erzählstil und Dialogen zunichtegemacht. Hier ist das nicht der Fall.